A boat traveling north about 20 mph in Cow Channel — a dredged cut between the Intracoastal Waterway and Hammocks Beach State Park — collided with a pylon and threw a passenger into the post and the water about 11 a.m. Saturday.

A driver and one passenger were in the boat.

“It looks like the operator was looking down, putting something away, and he struck the channel,” said N.C. Wildlife Resources Sgt. C. F. Smith, who investigated the collision and determined no law was broken.

The man was thrown from the 17-foot, aluminum Crestliner's bow, which was dented after it struck Marker 4, Smith said.

The victim, whose identity was not released, injured his shoulder and leg and was taken to Onslow Memorial Hospital.

“When I saw him at the hospital, he was heavily sedated,” Smith said.

The driver had minor injuries, he added.

Cow Channel is about 8 feet deep. Park ferries travel the narrow waterway to and from Bear Island.

Park Ranger Jake Vitak drove by the wrecked Crestliner soon after the collision, he said.

“I drove by probably minutes after it happened,” Vitak said. “I made a decision to stabilize the victim and get him into my boat rather than wait for Coast Guard since the water temperatures were in a range where hypothermia was a real possibility."

He helped pull the victim from the water.

“He complained of shoulder pain,” Vitak said.

Smith said such collisions typically are avoidable.

“They are not just acts of God,” Smith said. “Normally, a decision that you’ve made leads to the accident.”

This is the second boating collision with injuries in Cow Channel reported in September. On Labor Day weekend, a woman was thrown from a boat that also struck a Cow Channel marker. Her injuries also weren’t life-threatening.

Vitak recommended boaters to be cautious, especially during the more desolate winter months.